No. 1 Segdwick County firing towards potential repeat this fall

For years, Sedgwick County volleyball had been chasing that elusive state title. Turns out, all the Cougars needed was a coach that would instill some belief in them.

Enter Alissa Renquist. 

In Coach Renquist’s first season with the Cougars, that COVID-delayed Season D in the spring of 2021, Sedgwick County very nearly achieved the feat. It played all the way to the Class 2A state title match, only to fall to a strong Wiggins team. That ignited a run in the fall of 2021 that took the Cougars all the way to the top.

“I was fortunate coming into a program that just had a lot of talent,” Renquist said. “Fundamentally, they were sound. There were a lot of them that had played club ball and just had had that dream ever since they were little bitty to win a state title. Coming in, they were very open to having a new coach. They were very coachable. They took criticism well. And I think the one thing that they were lacking was just belief and confidence in themselves. And so we tried to bring that out and truly make them understand that we believe in them.”

As that self-confidence strengthened, so did the results on the court. The Cougars finished Season D with a 16-3 record and a runner-up banner, and used that last-minute snub to inspire a dominant run during the fall season. 

After suffering a two-match setback to Fleming and Liberty Common in the middle of October, their goals came into sharper focus. They downed each of their 10 opponents after that, hardly surrendering any sets, and rode that wave all the way to state glory.

They defeated Holyoke in four sets to take home the gold. 

“Obviously, getting state runner up is not ideal,” senior outside hitter Jensen Renquist said. “We wanted to be state champions, just like probably everybody else. I think that that really drove us to work hard, and drove us to want to win. I think it also gave us confidence. We knew that we were good and we knew that we could do it.”

This year, the Cougars have had to regroup after losing three seniors that were major contributors, just like any high school program. So far, they’ve taken the change in stride, opening the season with 11 straight wins before suffering their first setback to Wiggins just this week.

Jensen, along with her fellow seniors, have tried their best to carry the momentum from last season’s victory forward. Clearly, they’re handling the responsibility well.

“I think that it’s hard to come in with three players who played on the state championship team, and then have other players who haven’t really experienced it, but they want to,” Jensen said. “I would go back to the confidence on that. Getting the confidence for them to rub off of us and onto them was hard.”